Sunday, February 01, 2004

Australian Open 2004

My second most favourite Grand Slam has endeth, with recently crowned
World No 1 Roger Federer taking the men's title, beating unseeded
Marat Safin.
Federer is definitely the most exciting player to watch - he's been
credited with bringing 'touch' back into the game, though he can
cook up a mean serve as well. To quote someone else, he's not another
double-fisted baseline basher like just about anyone else on the circuit these days.
His backhand is a beauty to watch.

But still, I wasn't rooting for Federer. Why? It's like this. I know he's going to win many
many Grand Slam titles and break a zillion records, so this one should have go to Marat Safin,
climbing back to the top of tennis after a year of injury.
That's why I was rooting for Agassi too - the man is 34 years old and how many days
does he have left in the game?

A year back when I wasn't following tennis too closely, the collective opinion
was that the golden era of tennis is gone. Forget Boris Becker or Stefan Edberg,
there's no Sampras even, can tennis get worse was the thinking.

But with Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Marat Safin, Lleyton
Hewitt and Rafael Nadal - all of them under 25, the stage is set for some
ferocious dogfights and rivalries. The best is yet to come.

Women's tennis - well now, that's a yawn. Its usually either sister vs sister
(Venus Williams and Serena Willams) or Belgian vs Belgian (Justine
Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters)

It was nice to watch Leander Paes and Martina Navratilova on court. Their
chemistry is amazing, like watching teacher and disciple playing together.

Logout.

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